Sigi's gone (well at least off to Seattle), Parkhurst is gone, and so are Davino and Marinelli (probably not in the way that they had hoped). The annual exodus of players from MLS has begun and is certainly not done. Some players like Alejandro Bedoya, may even skip MLS and go straight to Europe. But do not fret my friends, with the transfer window opening at the beginning of the New Year, and the 2009 Superdraft coming up we are sure to get a new influx of talent in our favorite domestic league.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Well That Didn't Take Long
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Universal Mind Control
Common, fresh off acting gigs in Smoking Aces, American Gangster, and Wanted, drops a new album today called "Universal Mind Control". The follow up to "Be" and "Finding Forever", UMC is entirely produced by the Neptunes and Mr. DJ, featuring only a guest verse from his regular producer Kanye West. The critics haven't been too kind to the album, but since Common is one of my favorite artists, I'm sure he'll at least hit us with a few gems. Besides, Com is a legend in this game and now that he's making that movie money, I am pretty sure he can do whatever he likes. Check out his performance on Jay Leno above, and follow after the jump to check out the two official videos released from the album, "Announcement" being the better one in my opinon.
Generation Adidas Team Drops First Match of Trip
The Generation Adidas team, comprised of young promising players from MLS and coached by Frank Yallop, lost 1-0 to Reading's reserves yesterday, in their first of three matches on their trip. Here is the lineup used below. It looks like Yuri Movsisyan (RSL, 21, F) and Marvell Wynne (TFC, 22, D) might have missed out on the trip (or picked up injuries) as Tim Ward has been called in, and Davide Somma (SJ, 23, F) comes in as a replacement forward. Here is a post from Rob Valentino (NE, 22, D), checking in over at the New England Revolution official blog.
Chris Seitz (46: Josh Lambo); Tony Beltran, Bakary Soumare, Rob Valentino, Amaechi Igwe, Anthony Wallace, Eric Avila, Bruno Guarda (46: Davide Somma), Roger Espinoza (60: Tim Ward), Alex Nimo (Ciaran O'Brien), Abdus Ibrahim
Update: Bakary Soumare has made a post over at Luis Arroyave's blog, The Red Card, about his experience on the trip so far.
Brazil U-17's vs Us U-17's - Round 2 Highlights
Coutinho is ridiculous. After two goals in the first game, the #10 for Brazil once again showed his dominance in this match, with some nifty footwork and an assist(Classy first goal for Brazil). I posted about this game yesterday, but here are the highlights above. US definitely showed better in this one, and with some better finishing could have won the match. Nice to see a little glimpse of Stefan Jerome's potential in the 72nd minute, when he won a slide tackle and did a good job of beating his defender and getting a shot off. Too bad I missed this game on Sunday and had to settle for highlights, because this looked like a pretty entertaining game for 17 year old's.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Marshall, Parkhurst, and the Ghostbusters
This was intended to be a post about the MLS' potential loss of two promising, young American center backs, in Michael Parkhurst and Chad Marshall. But, Steven Goff and Ives Galarcep beat me to it. Why you might ask? Well to make a long story short, they are very good reporters, while I am a guy who loves soccer that has a lot of time on his hands. As I concede to their superiority, check out their posts' about Parkhurst and Marshall; and then check the video above for a preview of the upcoming Ghostbuster Video game featuring all the voices of the original Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis). As I recently purchased an XBOX360 and was all about these guys as a kid, I am pretty excited.
Better, But Not Good Enough at Nike Friendlies
In a rematch of the game that took place on Friday, Brazil U-17's once again topped the American teenagers, this time by a score of 2-1. Here is the report courtesy of US Soccer. Jack McInerney put the US ahead but strikes by Wellington and Joao Pedro led Brazil to victory. Although the results were not great over the weekend (0-2-1 including a 3-3 tie with Australia), the U-17's, who used a large pool of players, can come away from the weekend with the experience of playing against top competition. Young prospects that played over the weekend for US include Charles Renken and Stefan Jerome.
Note: The US U-17's were broken up into two teams (one red, one blue) with some players playing in both Brazil matches and others playing against Australia. The photo above comes courtesy of the YNT blog over at US Soccer.
Yanks Abroad - Let's Focus on the Positive
When looking at the Americans plying their trade abroad this past weekend, there were a fair share of positives and negatives to take away from their matches. But since it is Monday and there is a full work week ahead, I'm trying to stay positive. I am going to ignore the fact that Eddie Johnson, Steve Cherundolo, and Jay Demerit missed out due to injury, and I am going to overlook that Michael Bradley lost his starting place (although he did make a 23 min sub appearance) in a 3-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen. Instead I am going to focus on the good stuff, like Jozy Altidore making his second consecutive league start and going the full 90 in an incredibly entertaining 3-3 tie with Getafe, in which Villarreal was down 3-0 at half (video above). I'm also liking Damarcus Beasley starting and playing 78 minutes in a 7-1 victory for Rangers, Clint Dempsey going the full 90 in a 1-1 tie for Fulham, and Freddy Adu actually getting off the bench to play 9 minutes in a 1-1 tie for Monaco.
Update: Can't believe I forgot Frankie Simek returning to the starting lineup and going the full 90 for Sheffield Wednesday in a 1-1 tie with Southampton.
It's nice looking at the weekend with a positive slant, that is why I am focusing on UMD Men's soccer team making their fifth final four in seven years, and how the Terps' basketball team crushed GW last night; definitely a lot better than facing the harsh truth that my Washington Wizards suck and the Redskins have lost four out of their last five games.
Brazil Youngsters Dominate US in First Match
On Friday, in the first of two games that were played between the Brazil U-17's and the USA's U-17's this weekend, Brazil thoroughly dominated and came away with a victory and a 3-0 scoreline. Coutinho had two goals for Brazil, and almost had an incredible third, courtesy of some masterful dribbling. Check out the video above. Not too much in this first game to talk about from the American side, I will be back later with the result from the match that took place yesterday.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Get Healthy, I Dare You
After searching around on the internet for a few days for some Benny Feilhaber news, Yanks Abroad did my job for me and talked to the young midfielder. It's nice to hear that his recovery is going well, but it seems like a long time ago when people were penciling him in as a MNT starter for years to come. Hopefully he gets his health and his swagger back (He's only 23); there aren't many players that can do what he does in the video above. Let's hope he bounces back like Ronaldinho rather than fade away like John O'Brien.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Auto-Tune Parody Courtesy of B.O.B.
With T-Pain, Lil' Wayne and Kanye dominating the charts, we all have heard the auto-tune effect used on many occasions. And although I really like Kanye's new album, we can all agree that the use of auto-tune has gotten a little out of hand. Up and coming artist B.O.B. put what we were all thinking into song with the parody above. Most of you might be scratching your heads as to who B.O.B. is, but I saw him perform on the Rock the Bells side stage a couple months ago and came away very impressed. He was named one of the Top 10 Freshman of 2009 (along with Wale) by XXL and is backed by T.I.'s label. Check after the jump for a song from him you might have heard before.
B.o.B - B.o.B feat. Rich Boy - Haterz Everywhere
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